Related topic articles: Sina Technology News, Beijing Time, morning of December 5th, foreign media reported yesterday that according to informed sources, Apple is negotiating with online music service website Lala regarding the acquisition. Analysts said that this acquisition may deepen the competition between Apple and Google. In October, Google launched a feature called "One Box", allowing users to listen to and purchase songs through Lala and ILike from its search page. Analysts also pointed out that the acquisition of Lala may indicate an increasing interest by Apple in launching a music subscription service. Lala was founded by Bill Nguyen, founder of Seven Networks, and its current CEO Geoff Ralston was formerly the Vice President of Engineering at Yahoo. Since August, at least two other digital music startups have been acquired besides Lala. In August, MySpace under News Corporation acquired ILike, and then acquired Imeem last month. Apple offers over 11 million songs to users through the iTunes store, which was established in April 2003 and currently operates in 23 countries. Apple claims that iTunes is the largest music retailer in the world. Sources revealed that the two companies are still negotiating, and the terms of this deal are not yet known. Lala's investors include venture capital firms such as Bain Capital Ventures and Ignition Partners. The site allows users to listen to any song for free, but only once for free, after which users need to pay 10 cents per song to listen online. Lala's service differs from iTunes because its music is stored on servers rather than downloaded onto the user's computer. Lala provides users with over 8 million songs, including those from EMI Records, Warner Music, Sony BMG, and Universal Music. Facebook announced in October the launch of a service that allows its users to purchase music for friends through Lala. Related reading: IDC: Apple iPhone apps will exceed 300,000 by the end of next year; investment bank predicts Apple Mac sales growth next year will be 1.6 times the industry average; Apple clone manufacturers lose lawsuit, accused of being overambitious; rumors say Apple tablet price will be very low; Apple obtains TabletMac trademark, possibly for use in tablets.